shooter's possible motivation. >> people were running out of the building. >> after parkland, we thought we would see an end to this, but we have not. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> this is "new day", april 4th, 6:00 in new york. chris is off. david gregory joins me. >> i was just hanging around. they said come on back. i would never come on a slow newsday. >> here's your starting line. special counsel robert mueller has told president trump's legal team that the president is a subject but not a target of his investigation. the white house says president trump plans to deploy national guard to secure the border with mexico until his border wall is built. it is catching many pentagon officials by surprise. will the president approve them for or u.s. inside the u.s.? a trade war escalating up posing tariffs on $50 billion worth of american goods, soy beans, airplanes, cars. a lot of this hurts our farmers in this country. it comes after the trump administration imported new tariffs on the chinese. police identifying the woman who opened fire and what we are learning about why she was angry with the company. let's begin with our coverage. cnn's abby phillip live at the white house with our top story. hey, abby. >> reporter: good morning, david. we are learning new details about exactly what kind of legal president trump might be in when it comes to special counsel robert mueller. he may not be the subject of a criminal investigation, but it's clear he is not out of the woods just yet. during negotiations last month between special counsel robert muler and lawyers for president trump, the "washington post" reports that mueller said he was looking at the president as a subject of his investigation but does not consider him a criminal target at this point. investigators are compiling a report about the president's actions and on possible obstruction of justice, stressing he needs to interview mr. trump, according to the "post". president trump ramping up tough talks on immigration, surprising pentagon officials by announcing he wants to send the military to guard the southern border. >> until we can have a wall and proper security, we will be guarding the wall with our military. that's a big step. we haven't done that before, or certainly not very much before. >> reporter: the president had been briefed about a strategy, including mobilizing the national guard, a step both predecessors took. details remain unclear. a source tells cnn that the president has been working on the number of troops he's considering. president trump also taking credit for pressuring mexico to block a group of asylum seekers from reaching the united states. >> i just heard the caravan coming up from honduras is broken up and mechanics he co did that. and they did it frankly because i said you have to do it. >> reporter: mexico responded that the plan was made solely due to its members and not external pressure. >> i want to get out. you want to bring our troops back home and start rebuilding our nation. >> reporter: cnn learned that the military is working on plans to send dozens of troops into syria. the special envoy to the mission said this. >> we are to fight isis. that is our mission. the mission isn't of. we're going to complete that mission. >> reporter: the president's public statement in stark contrast to this earlier credit is similar. >> i don't want to tell the enemy how i am thinking. does that make sense. >> surprise is. remember they used to call it the element of surprise. >> we must as a nation be more unpredictable. >> i don't talk about military spots. >> reporter: also touting actions against russia. >> nobody has been tougher on on russia, but getting along with russia would be a good thing, not a bad thing. and everybody agree ws with that, except very stupid people. >> russia brazenly denies its actions. and we have failed to impose sufficient costs. >> reporter: well, this new reporting about mueller comes at a time when the first sentence was handed down in this case. a lawyer tied to one of president trump's former campaign aides was sentenced to serve 30 days in prison and pay a fine, highlighting the stakes for the people involved. president trump plans to have a why the day here in white house before heading to west virginia for a fund-raising dinner. that's one of the things he has been doing the last few weeks in preparation for the 2018 and 2020 election. alisyn and david. >> we will see how quiet a day it is in the white house. sometimes things change after 6:00 a.m. let's bring in john avlon and jeffrey toobin. jeffrey, the president is the subject of mueller's probe, not a target. what's the difference? >> there are three categories of witnesses in federal investigations. there's a witness who is someone who has information of value. there's a target, who is almost certainly going to be indicted, then there's a subject, someone who is being scrutinized who may be indicted, who may not be indicted. and that's the category that trump falls in. but that's a very serious thing. if you are a subject of a criminal investigation, that means you are -- they are looking at you as someone who may be a criminal. >> play that out a little bit. in an interview with prosecutors from mueller's team where they are gathering information, that status can change. >> it can change. but if you are a lawyer and are told, as you have a awe right to be told, that your client is a subject, you almost always tell that person to take the fifth. you don't take chances. now, if the client is the president of the united states, that calculation is a little different. >> why? >> because can the president of the united states take the fifth? as a legal matter he can. but politically it's a dicey question. i think the president can take the fifthing and may well wind up doing it. >> this whole question of whether you have criminal exposure you could be indicted for obstruction of justice doesn't include the idea that there is information here. there's a lot of talk that mueller could write a report detailing presidential behavior including potential obstruction of justice becoming fodder for political process. should is they pursue impeachment proceedings against him. it's not a question of the law. it's a question of high crimes and misdemeanors. >> a nonlegal process but a critical one. he is looking at two reports. one focused on obstruction, the other about russian collusion. trump could look at this news and his lawyers is and feel a degree of vindication. see, i told you i wasn't a subject of. but they can become targets. the danger of him making a misstatement could expand the scope. now he is down to ty cobb and sec low. there's chaos inside the president's legal counsel. >> they think the president doesn't always take their advice. so that's a frustrating experience. what does it mean the fact that it is down to jay sec low. >> he is a smart lawyer, specializing in the first amendment rights of religious organizations which is important, having almost nothing to do with with criminal law. what he needs is a lawyer with is experience in criminal law. he still doesn't have is one. it is an extraordinary spectacle to see the president reduced to legal zoom on who is going to represent him. i don't think that's going to be the case. but he has to resolve this question of whether or when -- >> do you really think that's because impressive lawyers are turning it down or he hasn't cast a gig enough net? >> i think it's both of those. they are turning it down. i have no doubt that he will get another lawyer somewhere. but the idea that this extremely prestigious assignment is being turned town because he doesn't listen to lawyers, he thinks he is smarter than lawyers, he doesn't pay lawyers. >> the point jeff is making is important. let's take a step back. it is is extraordinary that a president is the subject of a criminal investigation from special counsel from fbi. and lawyers are running the other way. >> and the initial conversations with the president, trump kept pressing him to say, well, you're not looking at my behavior. you're not looking at me, are you? and comey fenced around that. now we know they certainly are. >> by the way, all of this is going to go on whether the president is interviewed or not. jim comey has a book coming out. l go to war with the president. there will be all of this back and forth. it will be rehashed, which is the very question of whether the president obstructed justice or not and how it plays out. let's switch gears and talk about this border proposal, militaryizing the border. there are fewer illegal immigrants coming into the country and the president wants us to put us on war footing. >> 46% down. it is a political crisis that the president has consciously stoked. the folks specifically on central america, which is why the caravans have gotten his attention. drive a line between that and hon during an gang in the united states right now. he has done this before in political context. you can't literally put the u.s. military of the border. that's a violation of law. but you can put the national guard. bush did it. obama did it. and now traufpl f trump will do it as well. >> he is trying to curry favor with the ann coulters of the world who has been so so vocal that he hasn't built the wall, he hasn't done enough. so in 72 hours he is doing all of these things beefing up the border. >> it started over the weekend when he was with sean hannity. and ann coulter saying trump is a disappointment. that is driving it more than any actual situation in the real world. apparently ann coulter is deck tating american immigration. >> she is an important voice in the trump world about a reminder of what promise he made that will stick with his course -- >> is and everything else. >> your presidential sense of self-esteem is tied up in ann coulter's opinion, you've got a deeper program. >> she personifies the base and speaks vocally and fearlessly about it. >> she has not been shy about criticizing the president in vocal terms. you have to have a deeper north star to steer but if you're the president of the united states than app coulter's opinion on him. >> let's switch gears at the moment. an investigation under way after police say is a woman opened fire on youtube headquarters in california. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, david. investigators are trying to figure out what led this woman living in san diego, driving 9, 10 hours up here to youtube headquarters, turning into what was a normal ordinary lunch hour into an all too familiar shooting scene in america. >> we have a report of subject with a gun. this will be from the youtube building. >> reporter: new details about the woman police say shot three people at youtube's headquarters before taking her own life. >> she shot that person up really bad. no remorse or nothing. it was death row. >> reporter: authorities identifying the shooter as 39-year-old san diego resident y gdam. accusing the within sight of filtering her channels, something she blames on new close-minded youtube. her brother, who did not want to be on camera saying that his sister used youtube to advocate against animal cruelty, one on of her passions. >> she was a nice person. innocent person. she would never hurt anybody. >> reporter: and this picture post indeed 2009, with her posting with peta. his family reported her missing this weekend after she stopped answering her phone. they then located her car in a city near youtube's headquarters. >> is she had a problem with youtube. we called again and told them there is a reason she went all the way from san diego. >> reporter: they did not immediately respond to cnn for comment. she opened fire on a group of youtube employees she did not know shortly about 1:00 p.m. tuesday. >> quickly people were running out of the building. >> reporter: two minutes after the first call, police arrived as employees fled the scene before locating her body and ushering the injured to safety. the accounts are now down. three people were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds. the hospital tells us they did not have to have of surgery. a fourth person with an ankle injury. we have conflicting information. two law enforcement sources say the shooter knew at least one of the victims is. but police say here officially at this time there is no indication she knew anyone. alisyn. >> so there are still so many questions. kyung, thank you for that reporting. the president wants the military to secure the u.s. border with mexico. will that happen? we discuss next. an expectation to surpass. burden. but that's the point. ♪ bring us doubt, and we'll bring you the first car with true hands free driving for the freeway. bring us a challenge, and we'll reinvent what it means to own a car. ♪ bring us all your expectations, and we'll defy 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[ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion. you're ruining my workout. we're on the move. hey rick, all good? oh yeah, we're good. we're good. terminix. defenders of home. we do have breaking news at this hour. china striking back announcing awe 25% towerive on $50 billion worth of u.s. exports, including soy beans, planes, and cars. the move coming hours after they published a list of chinese imports that will be hit with new tariffs. ivan watson has all the breaking details for us. what have you learned, ivan? >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. china is willing to go to a trade war with the u.s. if the trump administration follows through on its proposal to impose this 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of chinese exports to the u.s. china has responded saying it is going to impose tariffs of the same scale and magnitude on $50 billion worth of u.s. exports to china. they have singled out soy beans, for example, a $14 billion business for the u.s. in 2016. airplanes a $14 billion business. as the chinese embassy in washington put it, they saw it is only polite to reciprocate as the chinese saying goes. the chinese government made it clear this has not yet been imposed. now is the time to negotiate and to cooperate. they are trying to urge washington to continue going on with trade as a win-win mutually beneficial trade of goods. they have justified its threat of tariffs accusing china of the of intellectual property. they were asked about that accusation of property -- intellectual property theft and they respond indeed a press conference today using very trumpian response calling that allegation fake news. david and alisyn. >> ivan watson, thank you very much. let's bring back our panel, john avlon and jeffrey toobin. picking a fight with china, a lot of people don't realize that our farmers are extremely vulnerable. just mentioning soy beans and other products that make us vulnerable to chinese retaliation. and we are starting to see that. >> no question. this is the other is sh. you want to know what a trade war looks like? on a precipice of one. is this an escalation to get to a resolution, or are we going here? in which case, watch out for the market. >> one more beat on that. he wants for his golden touch in the financial markets. but there is no question that impulsiveness, as well as some of his decisions, have had is a very is real impact getting on the gains and potential correction territory. he has to own this. >> that is right. and the one thing we know about tear seufs and trade wars is that the stock is market hates it. the stock market is not the economy. it is part of the economy, but it is an easy to measure barometer. today will be interesting to see, the market will open in a couple hours, to see whether the market news we are ready for a trade war or if this is more positive. >> no way they will read this as a sign of confidence. two things important to highlight. one, this is coming as america is preparing for a potential summit with north korea. this rachets up the tension. the second thing is chinese trade minister's use of fake news. that's a term that donald trump has introduced as gone viral in not helpful ways globally. it's more of the escalation we're seeing. >> about those economic implications, obviously there could be repercussions for our farmers. the unintended consequence of america first. obviously we're protecting about america first. we're protecting our people the most. but what happens when our farmers, soybean farmers have to take a hit on this? >> trade policy will always have winners and losers. if you have no tariffs, that hurts some industries. if you have tariffs, it hurts some and helps some. there is no perfect mean out there that everybody wins. >> tariffs may have an impact but overall it will be extremely low. this may be a moment that gets us a better deal in the end. >> it may. that's the president's intention if he can keep focus on it and things don't spiral out of control. the reason for a broader focus on 2r5eud is economic dependence is better than military escalation. >> that point about being a thorough policy. dow futures down over 500 points. the dow came back after dropping the day before. this is in part because you have a president popping off day to day changing policy. >> no doubt. >> something else that may be happening, talking about the national guard troops to the border primarily we think he's been alarmed by some of the fox news reports on a caravan of immigrants from central america. other presidents have done this. obviously president bush and president obama. a problem? >> not a big deal in and of itself. the question is are we having national policy in response to national problems or in response to criticism from fox news? that's really the issue here. why are we speaking about using the military? that's the question. not whether it is appropriate to use the national guard under some circumstances is. >> there is another miss apprehension used politically we need to reality check as well, which is immigration is up in the united states but violent crime is dramatically down. this is over a period of decades. there's been an attempt to associate immigration and illegal immigration with a crime epidemic. that is just is false. in the same way there is not an unprecedented number across the border, in fact, it has been the opposite, that association of immigration and even illegal immigration with crime is false. >> although one of the things he has done skillful lu is take individual -- >> absolutely. >> to symbolize a larger problem that may or may not exist. >> correct. >> the question is whether this tough hand at the border will coincide with a deal on daca or broader immigration deal that doesn't seem to be in the offing. bush back in 2006 when he did this he was trying to get to other measures. we'll leave it there. john, jeff you are, thank you very much. we are following breaking news here this morning. four marines feared dead in a helicopter crash. details on that coming up in a moment. patrick woke up with a sore back. but he's got work to do. so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that. aleve. all day strong. all day long. and for pain relief and a good night's rest, try aleve pm for a better am. ♪ can i get some help. watch his head. ♪ i'm so happy. ♪ whatever they went through, they went through together. welcome guys. life well planned. see what a raymond james financial advisor can do for you. is it possible to save from thousands of miles away? yes. thanks to the dedicated technicians at the american red cross... who worked with vmware... to develop technologies to help redirect the flow of blood to the areas and people needing it most. helping them recover... and refilling everyone with life-affirming hope. magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. that's the power of vmware, part of dell technologies. of being there for my son's winning shot. that was it for me. that's why i'm quitting with nicorette. only nicorette mini has a patented fast dissolving formula. it starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. every great why needs a great how. welcome to holiday inn! thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! every stay is a special stay at holiday inn. save up to 15% when you book early at hollidayinn.com save up to 15% when you book early internet providers promise business owners a lot. let's see who delivers more. comcast business offers fast gig-speeds across our network. at&t doesn't. we offer more complete reliability with up to 8 hours of 4g wireless network backup. at&t, no way. we offer 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. at&t, not so much. we give you 75 mbps for $59.95. that's more speed than at&t's comparable bundle, for less. call today. we are following breaking news. four marines presumed dead after a helicopter crash during a routine training mission. their chopper went down in southern california, 20 miles north of the u.s./mexico border. the names of the crew members have not been released pending notification to their families. the cause of the crash is under investigation. waves of arctic air and snow headed to the northeast. maybe it's coming at some point, the spring. what have you got? >> we've got three different systems that will make its way east. this is a rainmaker. it stretches back with very heavy rainfall. green mountain coffee roasters, packed with goodness. you have rain moving through the early portion of the day. it's also going to be rainy. you are going to notice over 75 million people under some type of wind alert. gusts over 60 miles per hour in some locations. once that system makes its way out, we have the next system coming through. this system will mainly be rain for coastal cities and interior new england. this is the one we have to watch. as we get closer to the weekend, it impacts the southeast first, alisyn. that may bring additional snow to the northeast as we head into the weekend. >> how dare you. >> sorry to be the bearer of bad news. >> change that forecast the next time we come to you. thank you very much. new details about the the shooting at youtube headquarters and a possible motive. someone who witnessed it all joins us next. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good? 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when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. but he's got work to do. with a sore back. so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that. aleve. all day strong. all day long. and for pain relief and a good night's rest, try aleve pm for a better am. girl: to most, he's phil mickelson, pro golfer. to me, he's, well, dad. so when his joint pain from psoriatic arthritis got really bad, it scared me. and what could that pain mean? joint pain could mean joint damage. enbrel helps relieve joint pain and helps stop further damage. enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been some place where fungal infections are common, or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. girl: since enbrel, dad's back to being... dad. visit enbrel.com and use the joint damage simulator to see how your joint damage could be progressing. ask about enbrel. enbrel. fda approved for over 15 years. we are learning a lot more this morning about the woman police say opened fire on youtube's headquarters in northern california. a law enforcement source telling the l.a. times they are combing through videos that appear to show the shooter railing against youtube for filtering her content. joining us is james gagliano and zach sror tease, a software engineer who saw the aftermath. tell us what you saw yesterday, what was the scene was like. >> well, yesterday the scene was chaos. we were all at our desks doing our work like a normal day. awe fire drill was pulled. some everybody got up and they exited the building. what happened was we exited the building in the back here. and the mass of people came down. i was ahead of everybody because i was on a skateboard. and i got to about this area right here. here was the conflict zone. i saw a man that was agitated. and he was yelling to somebody, do you want to shoot me? i looked over, and i saw there was a victim that was shot in the stomach at this area location over here. so i turned around and i started escaping down the parking structure. and then i was able to escape this way. >> now, zach, do you know any of the people involved? >> i do not know any of the people involved. that's a question i have been trying to research, actually. >> when you heard somebody say do you want to shoot me, do you know yet if the shooter was personally connected to anybody at youtube? >> i don't know that, no. >> can i ask one other question based on what you were showing us, it looked like barracks on a football field which raises the question about security and how easy it is to get on the campus of youtube without any i.d. even if you do have i.d., to break through any security. >> it is possible to get in to youtube through the parking garage during business hours. what i believe might have happened is she ended up coming in through the parking structure, walking past the gate and then coming through a one-way door that was located here. and if she did that, she would have access to the courtyard. >> that is helpful for us to see all of that. james, this is a female shooter. how unusual is that? >> well, it's quite the the anomaly, alisyn. when you look at it from the percentage of the population that females make up, it is half the population. they commit only 7.6% of murders for the year. i went back and looked at active shooter situations from 2000 to 2016, on over the course of those 16 years, 240 incidents. during that time, only nine the perpetrators were females. that is less than 4%. so quite the anomaly. >> the ability to get access to a campus like that is one issue. you obviously if you're san investigator have to look at what the relationships are like. why she would want to be there in the first place. >> and police when responding like yesterday in real-time have to go through a quick calculus. is this a domestic dispute, somebody with a grievance, which this appears to be. or is this shooter intent on ratcheting up a body count n. real-time police have to do that. they did great moving to the sound of guns. post columbine that is what we are telling them to do. >> today would have been her birth diaw, she would have been 39. do people do things on significant dates? >> yes. if you look at psychological studies they all have their reasons for doing things. she left behind quite the digital footprint. everything she uploaded to youtube, cell phone, contacts. the important thing for police right now is to determine phoefrbation. why is that important? it helps us predictably understand if one of these things could happen, how to predict it. second of all, did she have any help? >> zach, what are you hearing in terms of what youtube is telling employees today? >> they have been pretty silent. there have been a couple e-mails, but i'm not comfortable disclosing the contents of that. >> can you clarkize them in terms of general messages? >> yeah. all meetings are canceled. >> you're not going to work today? >> i am not, no. >> zach, thank you very much for walking us through what you saw happen there on the campus. thank you very much. when we come back, we will switch gears. sinclair broadcast group defending itself after making news anchors read material warning viewers about, quote, fake news. a former news director is speaking out about why he was not on board with that decision. he'll join us coming up. how do you win at business? stay at la quinta. where we're changing with stylish make-overs. then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. bravo, tall meeting man. start winning today. book now at lq.com start winning today. ythen you turn 40 ande everything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today with td ameritrade. tomorrow all eyes on tiger woods. >> top of the morning to you, david gregory. this "bleacher report" brought to you by ford, going further so you can. less than a year after spinal fusion surgery, not only is tiger woods back for the first time since 2015, he's favored to win it. he is chasing his fifth green jacket. a lot of buzz around the the course when he played a practice round with phil mickelson. if he can pull off a win, it would be his first major in a decade. he said it is miraculous that that is even a possibility. >> the pain of just sitting there and the amount of times that i have fallen because my leg didn't work. i would just have is to lay on the ground for extended periods of times. it was certainly dark times. that's why i said it is a miracle. i'm a person who had a hard time getting up, walking down, sitting down, anything, to now swinging the club. that is a miracle. >> the par 3 camp advertising is later today. andy scholes is there in augusta to bring us the action which starts tomorrow. >> very exciting. coy, thank you so much. >> so a former sinclair news director is speak out now about what's going on inside those "newsroom"s. we find out why he quit next. ♪ i've always wanted to have a photo exhibit of the faces of our community and those people that create the heart and the soul of where we live. directer: so i think we can make that happen oh my gosh, you're kidding me. introducing the suv equipped to make your first-ever happen. the first-ever ford ecosport is here. welcome to holiday inn! thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! every stay is a special stay at holiday inn. save up to 15% when you book early at hollidayinn.com save up to 15% so we know how to cover almosty we've anything.st everything even "close claws." [driver] so, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] [passenger] what are you doing? [driver] i can't believe that worked. i dropped the keys. [burke] and we covered it. talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ so what was going on behind these promos we have seen from sinclair tv stations in. >> translator: the sharing of biased. >> and false news. >> has become all too common on social media. >> more alarming, some media outlets. >> facts first. >> unfortunately some members of the media have their own personal bias and agenda. >> this is extremely dangerous to our democracy. >> in a new op ed, a former sinclair news director explained why he quit. they were forcing an editorial slant far afield from journalism. aaron weiss was a director in the midwest that was bought by sinclair broadcasting group. aaron, thanks so much for being here. >> thank you, alisyn. great to be here. >> you were at a sinclair station in 2013, or a station bought by sinclair. and you started to see troubling things. like what? >> that's right. pretty quickly after the acquisition happened, we started getting these must-run pieces that would come down every day from corporate. they had been well documented. >> what were those? what was the subject matter of the things that were being forced down your throat to run? >> they were generally political. some of them were preproduced packages from corporate. some were scripts that anchors were expected to read. and the expectation was they would be read entirely untouched without any oversight. they were of a quality that for me as news director i would look at these and if one of my fresh out of college reporters in market 147 had brought these scripts to me i would have is sent them back. but corporate expected us to run them untouched. >> and they had a conservative slant, correct me if i'm wrong. they often had a conservative slant. >> they did. >> did they have anything to do with your local community, the news you were supposed to be covering? >> no. they were entirely national. don't get me wrong. i have no problem with conservative or liberal slanted news. but own it. they co-op the credibility that local anchors built up in their communities over years and decades and used that credibility to promote a political agenda. and that to me is what is so ethically inappropriate. >> when you saw that promo we just ran of all the different local anchors having to say exactly the same script, parroting whatever corporate wanted, what did you think? >> my heart broke. my heart broke for the anchors who were forced to do that. i knew several of them. those who grew up in the local news business. my mom was an anchor for in tucson for 37 years. if she had been forced to do something like that when i was awe kid and forced to make a decision about her ethics versus keeping her job and a business she loved, i couldn't imagine doing it. my heart goes out to those who were forced to do the the equivalent of a proof of life hostage video. >> since you have written the op ed where you reveal all of this, you go public with the sorts of things that were not journalism that you were forced to do, what's been the response? >> you know, i've heard from folks all across the industry, colleagues that worked for sinclair, other colleague groups, all of them uniformly grateful. as someone who is out of the business i have the freedom to say that now. who i have not heard from is anyone inside sinclair. they have successfully locked down the company where anyone inside, we have seen memos that have been leaked threatening anyone who dares to speak out to anyone publicly about this. >> oh, my gosh. so what's advice to journalists still working at sun clare stations in. >> number one, stay strong and hang in there. many are trapped by multiyear contracts that have severe penalty tps they try to leave. and we know sinclair does enforce those clause tps they try to leave. beyond that, if you do have the opportunity to go work for a station group that respects quality journal issism and having worked for many station groups over the course of my 14 years in local news, sinclair really is unique. it's the only one that forces journalists to carry the political agenda of its corporate owners. so if that opportunity arises to go work for a station group that respects quality journalism, you should go do that. >> what's your advice to viewers of sinclair news stations in what should they know? >> my advice of all local news, find out who the local stations are. find out who owns them. be on the lookout for commentary pieces, pieces that come down with a bias. and your trusted anchors, they are now being required to read things that they wouldn't have otherwise. know what you're consuming. >> there you go. news literacy as we say. thank you for your candor. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks to our international viewers. for you cnn 25ubg talk is next. for u.s. viewers, "new day" continues right now. >> this is cnn breaking news. and good morning, everyone. welcome to our "new day". chris is off. david gregory joins me. great to have you here. we have breaking news this hour. fears of a trade war are escalating after china announced it is imposing tariffs on $50 billion worth of american goods, including soy beans, airplanes and cars. it is sending stock futures plunging. dow tpaoufpls down 500 points right now. >> also this morning, "washington post" reports that special counsel robert mueller told president trump's legal team that the president is a subject but not a target of the russia investigation. the post also reports that mueller is preparing a report on the president's actions while in office and potential obstruction of justice. we want to get with ivan watson live in beijing with breaking news. >> reporter: good morning, david. china made clear if the u.s. wants a trade war, it is willing to fight back. so hours after the trump administration proposed 25% tariffs on $15 billion worth 06 of chinese goods, beijing responded